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Crowley Lake residents hear Searles take on goat murder

If there’s one thing that gets the goat of Crowley Lakers, it’s when a bear gets their goat.

About a dozen people showed up at Wednesday’s meeting of the Long Valley Regional Planning Advisory Committee to hear Steve Searles’ take on a bear assault on a pygmy goat on July 31.

For Crowley Lake residents, who usually don’t have to deal with bears, the mauling of the goat was a strange and gruesome event, and Searles acknowledged that the bear had “crossed the line.”

He said if he had been there, and if he had jurisdictional authority (he doesn’t), “I’d have shot the bear.”
“I love bears, but people come first,” he said. “I feel strongly about that.”

He cautioned the gathering against taking action that would be out of order. The bear has not been a problem since the goat incident. “To go out next week and hunt bears as a solution to the goat that was killed, I’d have a problem with that.”

Searles said he would be happy to advise residents about aversive training, and what equipment they might need if they were interested in learning how to use it.

The goat was stolen from the doorstep of its owner, Lori Baitx.

Twenty curbside garbage bins – none were lockable, bear resistant bins – were knocked over in mid-July, and other incidents have been reported, none of which were human threatening.